I play in a monthly MTT. 40 people. stacks start shallow at 100. The blinds start at 1/2 and go up through 5/10 for the first 5 levels. You get in a good 3-4 rotations and play 8 handed during this time. After that, the blinds start going up much faster.
It has always been my assumption that you need to double your chip stack by the end of level 5 or not really be able to maneuver.
So the last FIVE times I have played, I have been at LESS than 100 chips by level 5. It is near impossible to bluff. Players want to see cheap flops and if you raise it, you are going to get a caller. So, it seems that you would want to play tight aggressive.
But for the love of cards, I did not get a single premium hand. I mean, even at 1/2, am I supposed to play 82o? No, I am not. I went 50 hands and the best I saw was ATs while the guy across the table's first two hands were KK and QQ.
I am not complaining though. That's cards. What I need to ask is, WHAT the HECK do you do in these situations. If you run a bluff and miss with shallow stacks, its over. But if you play tight at get not a single starting hand, where do you go from there? What do you do when you put in a raise with 44, 5 people see a flop, and its AKJ? Can you even conceived of someone folding to your bet? Even if its all in? No way, because 2 pair will call, Ax will call, a draw will call, etc. You need to be ahead and get paid off. So if after 50 hands you were NEVER ahead on the flop, hwo to do cope/adjust?!
Help? Anyone?
5 comments:
you obviously can't play crap especially when it doesn't hit on the flop, I think the best you can do is try to steal blinds in late position and be patient, eventually you will get some cards and if you don't the play will loosen up as the tournament progresses, if you haven't lost too much to the blinds you will soon get to play some hands that might stand up
What the other guy said..play tight, try to steal the blinds when opportunity comes in late position. Do not cripple yourself though. When blinds get bigger start making moves. Only other move I would make (only once in a great while) is go all in, when in the SB with 3 limper or less (plus the BB). Do this only if you have a tight image and all in plays are not being routinely called by AJo style limping hands or if people are not routinely slow playing monsters. I have made this move a couple of times and have fared well except when the BB wakes up with a monster hand (did this the other night with 8-3o in SB with two limpers, BB had AA, flopped trips, rivered quads).
Funny, that is EXACTLY what I did. I was in the SB and the button, who thought KQo was a huge hand, raised. I went all in and sure enough, KJ. After 5 low cards I doubled up to 100. Then, a round or so later, it is folded to me on the button and I raise all-in. The BB wakes up with his SECOND KK of the night.
But I still think it was the proper move.
Moves like that are what separate the men from the boys. When you are card dead and blinds are avalanching upwards you have to make some risky moves…
I did say that move separates the men from the boys…well final table on pokerblue.com this past Sunday. First place is a WPT ticket plus $2,000 in travel expenses (total value 7,000 plus). All other places do not pay. Well down to 5 people from 138 that started, chip leader limps UTG, CO calls, button folds, SB folds. I am in the BB and have been card dead the entire final table (started with $28K 2nd in chips and am down to $16K after posting the BB). I push with 66, UTG calls with AA and CO calls with AKs. Flop, Turn and River are K,J,J,2,2 and I am out in 5th place. Sometimes that move can bite you in the ass…:-)
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